


Willow of Flame

by kaitlinborck



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Amortentia, Department of Mysteries, F/M, Fluff, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Not Epilogue Compliant, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Slow Burn, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27316834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaitlinborck/pseuds/kaitlinborck
Summary: Ana coughed through all of the dust as she attempted to rush through the rubble to find Draco.“Draco!” Ana yelled again, turning wildly around in circles to try to locate her missing partner.From the corner of her eye she saw someone push Freya out of the way to avoid being hit by a rouge green light of magic. Theo grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the duel that had just taken place between the Death Eater and her savior. Ana noticed a shock of red hair and knew exactly who had been the one to push her friend out of the way.While Ana continued to search wildly from the midst of the battle taking place, Draco was also in search of his partner. He was weaving in and out of duels trying to avoid being hit with an unforgivable curse. Draco heard someone call his name, as he turned to look over at the person who was calling for him he was hit with a fierce pain. Within seconds Draco was on the ground, limp.Ana screamed as she saw a bolt of purple magic hit Draco in the back as he turning to look at her.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), George Weasley/Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Theodore Nott, Lavender Brown/Ron Weasley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! I'm new to Draco fic (and fic-writing in general), so please be kind and offer suggestions! This work is also being cross-posted to Wattpad so those who prefer that are able to read there! I hope you enjoy!

Stepping onto the crowded streets of Diagon Alley always brought Anastasia a sense of comfort. Anastasia has been coming to Diagon Alley for her whole life, and it has always felt like home to her; the magic running through the very heart of the centralized shopping center always made her feel like she was discovering magic again for the first time.

“Ana, are you done jilling off to Diagon Alley? Can we please just get new robes and go home?” Her brother asked her with a distinct role of his eyes.

“Oh shut it, Theo” Ana groaned at him, shoving him to the side. “You are aware that we’re going to go to more than Madam Malkin’s, correct? I need to go into Twilfitt and Tatting’s, Narcissa mentioned that they had new robes that are to die for.“

“You can go there by yourself,” Theo declared. “I’ll meet Draco at the Leaky and you can meet us when you’re done with your shopping.

“Works for me” Ana pronounced as she and Theo made their way through the crowds to Madam Malkins.

“Ana!”

Ana looked around to see who was yelling for her, she was knocked to the side with the force of the hug that came from her best friend.

“Frey, I literally saw you yesterday. Can you please halt accosting me in the middle of the street?” Ana giggled, hugging her friend back.

“I haven’t seen you yet today, so of course I’m excitable. It’s in the terms and conditions of becoming best friends with a Hufflepuff. Would you like to review our contract?” Freya questioned absolutely.

Rolling her eyes, Ana said, “No thanks. I signed my life away third year, no use trying to back on it now.”

“Finnegan.” Theo said succinctly.

“Nott.” Freya responded back with a smile, leaning over to capture the man in a hug.

“Sweet Salazar woman! Get off of me, I have a reputation to protect.” Theo proclaimed, trying to maneuver his way out of the hug as quickly as possible.

“Well look at this, little baby Puff is hugging the big bad Snake.” A voice drawled from behind them.

Without turning around Ana was able to tell whom the voice belonged to. She has been hearing that voice for the last 16 years, and she’s been in love with the owner of that voice for at least the last six.

“Draco, how nice of you to join us,” Ana simpered, turning around to look at him.

“How could I miss coming to greet my favorite set of twins?” Draco remarked with a smirk. “I just wasn’t aware I would get half of the Gryffi-puff twins as well.”

“I’m always here to surprise you, Malfoy.” Freya muttered moving away from Theo and stepping closer to Ana’s side. The lithe blonde has always slightly intimidated her even though she has spent plenty of time with him over the last three years.

“It seems you are, Finnegan” Draco muttered. “Nott, have you finished your shopping yet? Or shall we escort these young ladies to Madam Malkin’s?”

“We haven’t made it even close to the shops yet. As soon as we stepped a bloody foot into this damned alley we were accosted.” Theo muttered grumpily.

“Well stop your whining and offer Finnegan your arm so we can get fitted and go to the Leaky” Draco stated, offering his arm to Ana.

Ana quickly took his arm knowing that Theo would be kind to Freya and that she would be more comfortable walking with her brother than with Draco. Draco placed his hand on top of the one that was curled around his arm and began to lead her down the crowded alley towards the robe shops.

Ana took a moment to herself to gaze up at the man that had held her affections since he was a small prat to every single person in the room. The strong line of his jaw and the long blonde eyelashes that he possessed had her enraptured. Gone was the slicked back hair of his youth, he wore his hair softer now, but still put together to ensure he looked the part of the Malfoy heir.

“Take a photograph, Annie it will last longer” Draco teased, looking at her with a smirk gracing his face.

“Merlin, Draco! I told you not to call me that,” Ana uttered with a fierce blush.

“You’ve always been my little Annie, the fact that we are practically adults does nothing to change that for me. Besides you don’t seem to have an issue when I call you that when we are at one of the Manors.”

“It’s one thing to be subjected to your embarrassing nicknames in private, but calling me Annie in the middle of Diagon Alley is a different world and you know it.” Ana proclaimed, tugging Draco along the alley.

Draco smirked at her as he allowed her to drag him through the crowded alleyway. There was something in the way that she carried herself that Draco had always admired. Ana knew that she was able to control a room, and used it to her advantage when need be. She had been controlling their moves since the moment that she and Theo walked into his life. It was unsurprising when they all ended up in Slytherin all of those years ago, it was as if it was fate; in reality, it was just expected.

The Nott and Malfoy families had been very much aligned since the first Wizarding War years ago. Both families had pledged their allegiance to the Dark Lord and attempted to rid the world of Muggleborns, but when the Dark Lord fell so did the outdated ideologies for both of the families. While being pureblood and members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight was something they would never be able to change, the families had learned their lesson on the way of blood purity.

Draco felt as though the biggest loop that had been thrown when Ana befriended the Finnegan girl in third year. While it was not unheard of for Slytherins to befriend those from other houses, it was quite unusual for Slytherins and Hufflepuff to be as close as those two were. Allowing the Finnegan girl into the snake pit had also allowed for… lions to infiltrate his life. House rivalries are normal, there is something to be said for the house rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor; Draco harbors particular disdain for the Potter boy, and if you ask him it has nothing to do with the fact that Potter refused to be his friend in first year.

Ana stopped outside of Madam Malkin’s and allowed her arm to fall away from Draco’s as she reached out to grab Freya from Theo.

“Let’s get this bloody shit over with,” Theo grunted, moving around the girls in order to open the door for them to walk in.

The fitting at Madam Malkin’s took no time at all - they had all been coming to the woman since they began Hogwarts since first year. The only real adjustments that needed to be made was to Draco’s robes to accommodate for his growth spurt over the summer. Ana snuck looks at Draco while he got fitted, she pretended to look at some new colors of robes. Draco had really come into his frame over the course of the summer. Gone was the awkward gangly limbs, and a new man had emerged. He walked with an even more confident gait, as if he was finally the Malfoy heir that he was expected to be.

Freya quickly nudged Ana, “Will you stop gawking at him, he’ll end up noticing you.” Freya whispered in her ear to make sure that Draco was none the wiser to the conversation that was going on across the shop.

“Thanks, Frey.” Ana whispered back with a blush gracing her face.

Ana and Freya continued to look around the shop as Draco and Theo finished their fittings, pointing out new styles and colors of their favorite robes.

“Ladies, we appear to be done. We’re going to head to the Leaky, shall we meet you at Fortescue’s in a few hours. It will let you both browse more clothes, and it’ll give Freya time to peruse Flourish and Blott’s,” Theo mentioned, leading the witches out of the door of the robes shop.

“Works for us,” Freya responded quickly, thinking of all of the time she could spend in the bookstore. She had been meaning to pick up a new book on Herbology before she got back to Hogwarts this fall.

The group split, the girls heading towards Twilfitt and Tatting’s; the two girls walked in amicable silence as they observed all of the people in the alley.

Once Ana and Freya reached the shop, they split to head towards their favorite sections. Ana favored robes of a deeper color, it contrasted nicely with her dark hair and light eyes; whereas, Freya gravitated towards earth toned colors. Freya says it is because she’s a Hufflepuff, Ana thinks it’s because she’s boring and is afraid of color. They finished quickly at Twilfitt and Tatting’s, and began to head over to Flourish and Blott’s to gather the items on their booklist for this year.

Ana grabbed two sets, one for her and one for Theo, knowing that her dunce of a brother would refuse to buy the books himself.

“So, Frey, have you gathered the courage to owl a certain read headed twin?” Ana pressured as they left the bookstore with their purchases.

“Now you know damn well I haven’t!” Freya exclaimed in exasperation. “You ask me this every single time I see you, but you end up with the same answer.”

“Every day I hope you steal some of your brother’s Gryffindor courage, but alas you are a timid Puff through and through.” Ana mentioned in hopes to rile up Freya.

“Sweet Circe woman, you have exactly no room to speak. You spend your days looking after Malfoy like a lost puppy. You see the man five days out of seven and you refuse to tell him how you feel.” Frey demanded, looking at Ana reproachfully.

“I’m just Theo’s twin sister to him. I’ve known the man my whole life and he has never, and will never look at me like that.” Ana responded glumly.

“You refuse to tell him how you feel, so you’ll never know.”

“Oh, I’ll tell him as soon as you speak to George without the buffer of Ron and Harry.” Ana smirked at Freya.

“You’re on, Ana.” Freya declared with false confidence.

“Don’t you know better than to make a deal with a Slytherin?” Ana asked, arching a manicured brow.

“Just you wait, this is the year that we get our lives together. Hermione has already started working on our study timetable for exams. I’ll finally speak to George like a functioning human being, and Draco will finally realize he’s madly in love with you.” Freya insisted, looping her arm through Ana’s as they reached the outside of the Leaky.

“Oh Frey, I love your positive outlook on life. It’s so refreshing to Slytherin doom and gloom.” Ana grinned, squeezing her best friend’s arm.

Freya and Ana walked into the Leaky to join their friends, and out of the corner of her eye, Ana noticed a pale figure with wild dark hair rush past them on their way out of the door. Brushing the rude encounter off, they walked over to the table that Draco and Theo saved for them.

“Ladies, we would ask how your shopping was, but we don’t quite care,” Theo decided, sliding over a chair to allow Freya to sit next to him.

“Oh brother dear, you are so charming. How is it you have managed to secure so many dates in school?” Ana answered, fluttering her eyelashes mockingly at her brother as she slid in next to Draco.

“Oh, shut it” Theo muttered at her. “It’s not like you’re raking in the dates either little sister.”

“Theodore, I am quite literally two minutes younger than you, do shut your mouth. I just don’t tell you about the boys I've met with.” Ana said suggestively as she swiped Draco’s drink off the table to take a long pull of the pumpkin juice.

“I did not need to know that. Thank you for that horrid image.” Theo groaned, shuddering.

The four sat there for hours chatting and talking about the classes they would be taking this upcoming year. As the night began to darken, the group began to say their goodbyes.

“I’ll see you all on the train tomorrow” Freya reminded as she began to grab her things to head to the Floo.

“Yes, Draco and I will meet you in the carriage after we stop in the Prefect’s carriage.” Ana stated, rising to hug her friend.

“Brilliant! See you in the morning!” Freya called heading towards the fireplace. “Feel free to leave Malfoy behind,” she muttered before she could get out of earshot of Ana.

“I’ll be departing as well,” Draco mentioned, leaving the twins to themselves. Draco leant over to embrace Ana softly. Ana allowed herself to melt into his arms for a brief moment, before she remembered that her brother was sitting at the table.

Draco disengaged himself from the hug, and walked around the table to clap Theo on the shoulder before heading to the Floo himself.

Theo began to rise from his seat, smirking at Ana knowingly.

“Say nothing, Nott.” Ana muttered harshly, stalking over to the fireplace.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Another update for you, this chapter has a bit of dialogue directly taken from the Goblet of Fire so here is my standard:  
> I do not own these characters or this universe, all rights go to JK Rowling on that front. I hope you enjoy!

“Seamus if you don’t get your pale arse down these stairs in the next ten minutes I can guarantee that I’ll leave you!” Freya shouted uptake stairs, collecting the last of her school things.

“Feck off, Frey!” Seamus responded back cheerily, “You wouldn’t leave me even if you wanted to, Mum would hex you!”

“Oh sweet mother of Merlin,” Freya murmured to herself, heading towards the door once Seamus made his way down the stairs.

The trek to Kings Cross was short for the Finnegan twins, their parents had decided to say goodbye to them before they left the house that morning. The Finnegan family had a home in Muggle London, as their mother was a witch while their father was a muggle; this allowed for the twins to easily catch a cab and make their way to the station.

Making her way into the station Freya tried to hurry Seamus along, eager to be reunited with all of her friends that she had missed over the summer.

“Freya, if you do not slow down I will spend the next two years putting dung bombs in your room. You literally saw Ana yesterday, you’d think you two were dating with your excitement to see her.” Seamus warned as he struggled to keep up with her swift gait.

“At least people assume I have a significant other, oh dear brother of mine.” Freya snapped back at him. “You can’t even look at a witch without turning into a tomato!”

“You’re the one who’s literally in love with someone who has literal flaming red hair, come off it.” Seamus retorted quickly.

Freya could feel her cheeks turning red, she turned to glare at her brother.

“Who even told you about that?” Freya muttered, her eyes narrowing into slits as she started her brother down.

“You just did, and now Dean owes me two galleons, wicked.” He responded, triumphantly. “Really Freya, it is quite obvious that you hold a torch for our dear George.”

“Keep your voice down!” Freya rushed out, frantically searching around them as they were drawing closer to the platform. “I will Avada you if I find out that you told him!” She warned.

“You couldn’t Avada a blade of grass you Hufflepuff” Seamus snorted.

In lieu of a response Freya smacked him on the side of the head as she pulled her trolley closer to the platform. Ignoring her brother's laughs, Freya began to run swiftly towards the middle of platforms nine and ten. When she emerged through the other side of the platform she looked around at all of the witches and wizards preparing to head back to Hogwarts this fall.

“Freya!”

Freya looked around in search of the person who called her name. Further down the platform she could see Harry, Ron and Hermione waving her down. Leaving her brother in a conversation with Dean Thomas, she began to make her way down towards the trio, waving hello to others as she walked by them.

“Hermione! How was your summer?” Freya said as she embraced one of her closest friends. She and Hermione had become quite close in their first year at Hogwarts. While she and Hermione had met first, her friendship with Ana was unparalleled.

Freya had met Ana in third year after an incident in their shared Arithmancy class. Freya had come in late to the class after helping a first year find their classroom, so she was forced to sit by the Slytherin girl. The Professor had assigned them classwork and were told to work with their seat partners; Freya, being the naturally charismatic girl that she was, didn’t hesitate to quickly turn to her seat partner to introduce herself. Ana was naturally more reserved and was quite startled at this girl's exuberant personality.

Their friendship had stayed mostly in the classroom for the first couple weeks of term, while Freya was very charismatic, throwing herself into the snake pit to hang out with her new friend was a bit out of her comfort zone. While there wasn’t any outward animosity between any of the houses other than Slytherin and Gryffindor, there were still old rumors and stereotypes that lingered within the halls of Hogwarts. Ana had invited her to come study with her at the library after a particularly rough day in class, and that was the day that changed their friendship from being casual to them being inseparable.

Freya showed up to the library and was quite stunned to see Ana waiting for her with a couple of her Slytherin housemates. Ana was quick to assure her that they weren’t going to cause them any problems while they studied. That night Freya had really gotten Ana to open up, surrounded by some of her closest friends, and it allowed for Freya to see that she had been accepted by the other girl and her friends.

While Hermione began to tell her about her summer with her parents and her visit with the Weasley family at the Burrow, Freya began to try to subtly look around to catch sight of George Weasley around.

“And you aren’t even listening to me!” Hermione stated matter of factly, looking over at her friend with a knowing look.

“Sorry, Mione. You know me, always a bit scatterbrained.” Freya apologized with a blush gracing the apples of her cheeks at being caught by her friend.

“There’s no need to apologize. It’s just so good to see you, I can’t wait to get our study group back together, I’ve missed you all.” Hermione hinted, gazing off over towards the front of the train.

“Oh, I don’t think you missed Ana and I as much as you missed her brother this summer.” Freya implied with a smirk.

“I don’t appreciate your tone. Will you keep it down? I don’t want him to even catch wind of that.” Hermione answered.

“Don’t want who to hear about what?” A new voice added to the conversation.

“Harry!” Freya crowed, reaching around to hug the dark haired wizard tightly. “How are you? How was your summer away from those awful muggles?” Freya shuddered thinking about all of the stories her friend had told her about his family.

“It was so nice to be away from the Dursley’s, the fact that I never have to go back is wicked.” Harry beamed, winding his arm around her neck after they stepped out of their embrace. “I’m brilliant, glad to be back this year.”

The three friends were soon joined by Ron, and they continued to chat as they made their way onto the train to secure a carriage for all of them.

“Finnegan, in here!” A voice called as they made their way down the corridor of the train. Looking to her left, Freya saw Theo Nott waiting in a carriage with Pansy Parkinson.

Crinkling her nose at the appearance of Parkinson, she made her way into the carriage with Harry, Ron, and Hermione trailing after her.

Theo nodded in a friendly manner towards the two boys at her side, and turned his attention to Hermione.

“Granger.” Theo stated, looking at the girl with mirth in his eyes.

“Nott.” Hermione replied in an even voice, nodding at him as she took her seat next to Harry.

Those in the carriage, other than Theo, all gave Parkinson terse hello’s as none of them were too fond of the girl. Freya knew that once Ana got here and saw Pansy here that things would get even more tense; while Freya didn’t like Pansy, Ana detested the girl. Pansy had the biggest crush on Draco, and was unafraid to make her attraction to the fair haired wizard known.

While the group waited for Draco and Ana to join them, classmates drifted in and out of the carriage to come greet their friends after a long summer apart. Neville stopped in to speak with Freya about the newest Herbology course and the coursework that Professor Sprout would be assigning them this year. Fred and George came in to talk to Ron about their newest prank ideas, when George stepped into the carriage Freya tried to avoid eye contact, as she could already feel that her face was bright red with her blush.

“Freya, how was your summer?” George asked with a large smile as he disengaged himself from the conversation with his brother’s and Harry.

Freya looked over at George and tried to maintain a collected look on her face. “My summer was lovely, thank you for asking. I spent a lot of time at Nott Manor with Ana, naturally.”

“Too much time at the Manor if you ask me,” Theo muttered, inserting himself into the conversation. Looking over at him, Freya could see the laughter in his eyes.

“You would wither away without being in my presence for too long Theodore.” Freya replied, sending the man who was practically her own brother at this point a smile.

“You should come to the Burrow for one of our breaks this year. It’s been too long since you’ve come by to see Mum.” George interjected in an effort to capture back Freya’s attention.

“Oh, I would love too! How are Molly and your father?” Freya asked eagerly.

As George and Freya began to talk about the Weasley family, Freya could notice Theo engaging Hermione in conversation. Harry and Ron were discussing some of the latest quidditch stats, so that left Pansy alone. No one was attempting to engage the girl in conversation, Freya could tell that Pansy knew that she was unwanted within the group of people.

As Fred and George wrapped up their conversations with those in the carriage, they made their way to harass others with some of their dung bombs throughout the train. Just as Freya was going to ask where Ana and Malfoy were, the door to their carriage slid open and the two Slytherin’s were entering the carriage.

“Sorry we took so long, that patrol took ages.” Ana said sliding in next to Freya.

Freya sat next to her best friend, her anxiety rolling off her body in thick waves.

“Frey, what’s wro-?” Ana began to whisper to her friend. Before she could finish her question, Ana caught sight of Pansy Parkinson in the corner of their carriage. Ana stiffened as Draco made his way over to the corner to squeeze his way next to Pansy.

Freya watched the expressions on her best friend’s face cautiously, and without even needing to look up at Malfoy and Parkinson she could tell that Parkinson had leaned in to kiss Malfoy. The subtle tightness at the corner of her friend's mouth, and the liquid fire in her eyes gave away her friends feelings.

“Ana! How are you?” Hermione quickly asked, reaching over to embrace their friend. Freya looked at Hermione over Ana’s shoulder to display her gratitude for distracting her friend from the scene in the corner.

As the three Gryffindor’s made it a point to try to distract Ana from Malfoy and Parkinson’s bubble in the corner, Theo caught Freya’s eye to indicate his displeasure with the hurt his best friend caused his sister.

Nodding subtly, Freya indicated that she got the message and engaged herself in the conversation with the others in the carriage. Theo and Freya made sure to ignore the couple in the corner, and everyone else in the carriage took their lead and ignored what was going on.

Harry nudged Freya in the side to indicate that he wanted to switch seats with her. Slightly confused, Freya allowed him to step around her so he could sit next to Ana. Observing the scene in the carriage, Freya saw Harry slip his arm around Ana’s shoulder. Ana leaned into Harry’s side gratefully as her friend offered her support. At that moment Freya knew exactly what Harry was doing.

Freya slid her eyes over to Malfoy to watch him; Freya could see the way that Malfoy’s grey eyes hardened into hard steel at the sight of Harry Potter affectionately touching Ana. Freya was aware that Harry had harbored a little crush on Ana when they were younger, but knew that nothing would change the way that he felt for a certain Weasley girl. Freya was also aware of the fact Harry knew how much disdain Malfoy had for him, and knew that if anyone else had been the one to offer Ana support it would not have phased him.

“Who wants to play a game of exploding snap?” Ron asked excitedly. Theo, Harry and Ana all said they would play along in order to finish out their ride to Hogwarts.

“Looks like you’re on my team, Weasley. Don’t let me down.” Theo said imperviously, leveling Ron with an even stare.

“Don’t worry, Nott. We’ve got this in the bag.” Ron replied with a wide grin gracing his face.

Just as Freya could feel the Hogwarts express slow down, the exploding snap game had finished.

“Er, sorry Nott. I didn’t realize how good your sister was at this game.” Ron said, his face turning the color of his hair as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“That’s quite alright, Weasley. Ana is devious when it comes to this game.” Theo retorted, smirking over at his sister.

Ana offered her brother a wide grin as they stood to make her way to the front of the carriage for her Prefect duties. Normally she would have waited for Malfoy, but Freya knew that her best friend’s emotions were feeling quite sensitive after the scene with Parkinson and Malfoy.

Ana strode out of the carriage after turning to give everyone other than Parkinson a hug in departure. Malfoy stood silently, adjusting his robes and followed Ana out of the carriage without saying a word to anyone. Freya was sure that Ana and Malfoy were about to argue once their Prefect duties were over. Parkinson was the next to stand and leave, she too left without saying a word to anyone.

“Well, that was bloody awkward.” Ron declared as the carriage door closed behind Parkinson.

“You can say that again” Freya muttered as she began to gather her things.

“Potter, thank you.” Freya heard Theo say quietly to Harry as they all made their way out of the carriage to head towards the carriages that would take them up to the castle for the welcoming feast.

Freya climbs into a carriage with Harry, Ron and Hermione as Theo leaves to meet up with some of his other friends from Slytherin house. The four friends continued to chat as they made their way up to the castle, throwing theories about the new school year around.

Once the students had made their way into the castle they bid their farewells and began to head to their respective house tables so that they could begin the feast. Freya sat down next to Hannah Abbott as they watched the first years sorting, and they began to eat once the large array of food had materialized onto their tables.

Once it had seemed that most of the students had eaten their food, Headmaster Dumbledore stood to address the school.

“So!” said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. “Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.”

“Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch’s office, if anybody would like to check it.”

The corners of Dumbledore’s mouth twitched. He continued, “As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.”

“It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year.”

Freya could hear the uproar of indignant voices at this news. The quidditch teams were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to speak. Dumbledore went on, “This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers’ time and energy — but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year.”

Freya could once again hear the uproar of voices throughout the Great Hall, except this time they were in excitement instead of horror.

“Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts,” Dumbledore continued ignoring the uproar of voices, “the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age — that is to say, sixteen years or older — will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This” — Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words— “is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion.”

Freya looked across the room and made eye contact with Ana—this year was going to be one hell of a ride. Ana grinned across the room at her best friend in excitement at the events to come.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update for you all! Hope you all have a good week!

Ana stood at the end of the welcoming feast, calling for the new Slytherin first years to follow her to the dungeons so that she can begin giving them the tour of their new home for the next seven years. She refused to meet the eyes of Draco, no matter how many times he tried to seek out her eyes as he too fielded the questions from the first years.

“Welcome to the Slytherin common room,” Ana declared as they made their way through the portrait hole. “Our common room will have a password that is changed every fortnight, so do be sure to remember the password. If you forget it you will have to stand outside until one of your fellow housemates comes along to let you in.” 

“Also, beware of Peeves, he will cause havoc if you stand outside too long.” Draco interjected, causing a few of the first years to peer over at him with nervousness brimming in their eyes. 

“If my ladies will follow me, I shall show you to your rooms.” Ana led the new Slytherin first years to the girls' side of the dormitory in order to show all of them to their rooms. 

“One advantage of the Slytherin dormitories is that we all get our own rooms, I guess the founders decided that we deserved something nice for putting us in literal dungeons underneath the black lake.” Ana joked in an attempt to get some of the girls to smile and relax. 

“You’ll find that your things will be placed in your rooms, and your name will be on the outside of the door” Ana continued, leading the girls down the corridor to the first year dorms. “There are wards put up against the entrance on each side of the dormitories to ensure that the boys cannot reach your dormitories.” 

“Don’t even attempt to get past them, don’t worry” Ana sighed, “We’ve all tried to break past them.” 

“There is only one Slytherin boy who can get past the wards onto this side of the dormitory and that is the male prefect that you all met: Draco Malfoy.” Ana explained to them. 

That caused most of the girls in her group to giggle at her and prompted a question and answer session of topics that Ana was not equipped to answer. 

“Ana?” A young girl named Serafine asked as Ana was making her way back down to the common room to have a conversation with Draco about his meeting with the boys.

“Yes, Serafine? What can I do for you?” Ana asked the young girl softly, as the girl looked liable to burst into tears at any moment. 

Serafine paused, as if she was hesitant to ask her question, Ana gave her a kind smile in return hoping to encourage the girl to speak with her openly. 

“Ana, is Draco nice?” Serafine questioned timidly, as if she decided to not ask the question she really wanted to ask.  
“Draco is one of the kindest people I know,” Ana looked down at Serafine. She leaned down to whisper to the young girl, “But don’t tell him I told you, he’d off me.” 

Hoping that her answer would inspire a laugh out of the girl, she looked down expectantly. The girl was still timid, as she began to bite her lip Ana knew that something larger was at play with this young girl's emotions. 

“What is that you really wanted to ask me?” Ana questioned.

“What if no one likes me?” The young girl whimpered softly, hugging her arms around her own stomach. 

“Oh sweetheart,” Ana said as she made her way into the common room to direct the girl to the couches. Directing the girl to sit down, Ana sat next to her to wrap one of her arms around the dainty shoulder of the first year girl. 

“There are people who already like you, I like you for instance.” Ana sent the small girl a smile. 

“Yes, but you’re so much older than me. My older brothers were all in Ravenclaw, and my family all expected me to get sorted there.” Serafine cried as she leaned heavily into Ana’s touch. 

“You were placed here for a reason, there is nothing wrong with being a Slytherin. We are all so loyal to one another and we will have your back no matter what.” Ana reminded the young girl.

“Now, what are two beautiful girls doing in the common room together crying?” 

Ana looked over at Draco with a pleading girl, hoping that he would have some words of encouragement for her. Draco nodded at her, and slowly made his way over to the couch to sit on the other side of the small girl. 

“What can we do to make those tears disappear, hmm?” Draco looked at the girl with one of the softest smiles Ana had ever seen on his face. 

“Nothing really” Serafine hiccuped. “I just need to get over my nerves, I’ve never been good at making friends.” 

“Well the sorting hat placed you in the right house,” Draco declared proudly. “Slytherins are as loyal as they come, we protected our own. House over everything.”

Draco and Ana sat with Serafine for a little while longer, trying to distract her. She asked them questions about classes, and their professors. The conversation allowed for the girl to relax, and soon enough she was yawning and rubbing her eyes as she said it was time for her to go to her room.

“Thank you both for talking with me.” Serafine blushed. “I’m sure you both had better things to do.”  
“We will always have time for you Serafine.” Ana responded, absolutely. 

Ana and Draco were silent as they watched the young girl make her way down the hall to her bedroom. Ana listened to the fire crackle as they sat waiting for the other to speak first, after their awkward train ride.

“So,” Draco began. “You and Potter?” 

“Merlin, Draco.” Ana proclaimed, exasperatedly. “We go through this every year, I am not dating Harry. Even if I was, you are not my boyfriend so you have no say.” 

The molten steel of Draco’s eyes harden into stone. 

“I am your best friend, and Potter is not good enough for you.” He muttered, looking away from her. 

“Draco, if I waited around for you to find a man good enough for me by your standards, I would end up an old spinster.” Ana grumbled as she stood to go to bed. 

“I’m just looking out for your best interest, Annie.” Draco mumbled, looking up at her. 

“No, Drake. You’re thinking of you, not me.” Ana said walking away.

Draco watched her walk down the hall in silence. He sighed as he ran his hands through his fine, pale hair. That bloody woman would be the death of him. It’s not as if he had a real issue with Potter, he just didn’t feel like there would be anyone good enough for Ana. 

Draco and Ana had grown up together, there was rarely a time as kids that they weren’t together. Ana, Draco and Theo lived in each other’s pockets, they were as thick as thieves. It was strange to even think about Ana dating, she had gone out on dates to Hogsmeade before, but they never stuck. There was no way that Ana could date Potter though, he just wasn’t good enough for her. 

While there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the Gryffindor, Draco just didn’t like him. He tried to keep his snide comments and jabs to himself, or when it was just him and Potter; Ana hated it when they fought, so did Theo for that matter. Before their year of Hogwarts students, inter-house friendships were there but they were nowhere as intense as the ones that their class had inspired. Draco knew that he was stubborn, and tended to keep his cards to his chest; however, he would have done just about anything to make Ana happy. She was probably the most important woman in his life, barring his mother of course.

Draco sighed, and ran the palm of his hand down his face as he slumped further into the couch. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared into the flames in front of him trying to empty his head. 

The first week of classes passed swiftly, everyone jumping into their classes and routines with friends. On Friday night Ana found herself in Gryffindor tower, sitting on the floor by the fireplace in the common room. 

“Anyone up for a game of exploding snap?” Ana could hear Seamus say from across the room.

“No, Seamus.” A chorus of voices parroted back at him.

Seamus turned red and began to mutter to himself about no one really appreciating him. Ana grinned at herself as she listened to him complain while she did her Arithmancy homework.

“What gave Vector the right?” Freya muttered to herself, “Two rolls of parchment as homework, it’s bloody ridiculous.”

“What did you expect? Vector is always a terror.” Ana responded, with a small laugh. 

“Vector really has always given mass amounts of homework.” Hermione muttered from the other side of the table. 

As they continued to work on their homework, people from all different houses filtered in and out. Neville came in to speak with Freya about their latest project in Herbology, Harry and Ron stopped in to speak loudly, to anyone who would listen, about the tragic fact that Quidditch wouldn’t be played this year due to the TriWizard Tournament.

“Scared that I would beat you again, Potter?” Draco called from the portrait hole as he walked into the common room with Theo trailing behind him. 

“You wish, Malfoy.” Harry replied back with a smirk. 

Draco made his way over to where Ana was sitting, he sat in the chair behind her, bracketing her back with his long legs. 

“Why is it that you insist on sitting on floors? There are perfectly good chairs, you know.” Draco commented, looking down at Ana on the floor.

Ana leaned her back against the chair, feeling Draco’s legs against her shoulder. She tipped her head back to look up at him through her lashes.

“I’m productive when I’m closer to tables, I tell you this constantly.” Ana replied back to Draco. 

Ana had always had an affinity for sitting close to tables, she felt as she was more productive when she was able to have her things spread out on a table around her. With HErmione’s desire to sit close to the fire it made sense for her to be closer to the table by sitting on the floor, a cushioned armchair would never allow for her absolute concentration. 

After looking at Draco for a moment, she lowered her head and got back to work on her homework. She felt Draco rustle around behind her and pull her Potions textbook out of her bag, he always ended up using hers because of the notes she wrote in the margins of the text.

Ana looked over at the other side of the table to see that her brother had managed to distract Hermione from her homework. They were talking softly to one another as they sat side by side on the floor. 

Looking around the room, Ana saw George Weasley staring over at their table with a strange look in his eye. He was staring at the back of Freya’s head with almost.. a look of longing. Freya was always missing the signs of affection that the Weasley twin threw her way, just the same, George missed the obvious signs of Freya’s affections as well. 

Ana shook her head and returned to her homework. When she was nearly done she could feel Draco begin to play with the ends of her hair, it was something he had been doing since they were children. He always reached for her hair when he was focused on something and she was nearby. 

Ana completed her work and learned back against the chair behind her, with a great sigh she learned her head against Draco’s knee as she once again surveyed the room around her. George had made his way closer with Fred, they had both engaged Freya in conversation about the twins’ plans for their joke shop after their graduation at the end of this year. Freya had a keen interest in love potions and love letters that the twins’ were very interested to take hold of before anyone else could snatch up her talent.   
As Draco continued to run his fingers through her hair, Ana engaged herself in conversation with Neville about his interest in Herbology. Neville was one of Ana’s favorite people from Gryffindor house, he was the sweetest man she had ever met and was always willing to help out when needed. Ana would venture to say that Neville was one of the best people that came along with her friendship with Harry. 

Harry inserted himself in the conversation to ask for help on the latest Potions assignment that Snape had assigned. Before Ana could even respond, Draco had explained the significance between cutting up Sopophorous Beans in opposition to crushing them based on the freshness of the ingredients.

“Malfoy, I hate to say it, but you truly are the best at Potions. Even our Hermione can’t outsmart you there.” Harry stated, with a look of gratitude on his face at the thorough explanation.

“It helps that Snape doesn’t hate me, if he hadn’t have tutored me one-on-one when we were in our younger years I would have been fucked.” Draco replied in a smug sounding voice.

Ana smiled at the easy interactions between her friends, while things might not always be this simple between them all, right now it was. Leaning further into the back of the chair, she learned heavily on Draco’s leg. There was nothing better than having her best friends by her side as the man she loved ran his fingers through her hair. With a contented smile on her face, she allowed her eyes to close as she took in the simplicity of being kids.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! Another chapter for you - I hope to have another one up before the end of the week! Enjoy!!

There was something soothing about waking up in the Hufflepuff basements, surrounded by an ever-growing collection of greenery, Freya thought as she began to stretch in her bed. For one moment, there is nothing but the sounds of her roommates soft breaths as she wakes up in the morning. This one moment of solitude allows Freya to gather herself for the day and take stock of the tasks that she needs to complete, despite the fact that she’ll probably forget half of them.

Getting out of bed, Freya felt for her large square-framed tortoise glasses that took up nearly half of her face. As she pushed her glasses onto her face, Freya went to the trunk that was placed at the foot of her bed, grabbed her things, and began to head towards the showers. Freya went about her morning routine, brushing her freshly washed dark chocolate brown straight hair and humming to herself a song that she had heard on the muggle radio over the summer hols. Once Freya was done getting ready for the day, she grabbed her school bag and made her way up to the Great Hall for breakfast. This was the only meal she got to sit with all of her friends from other houses during the week… and she has a passion for french toast, so she made sure to never miss breakfast.

Walking through the halls of Hogwarts while the sun was just rising was one of Freya’s favorite early morning rituals. Once the seasons started to change, Freya loved the walk even more; The colors of the grounds changing as the world turns to a crisp Autumn was breathtaking, and nothing brought her more joy than seeing the way the sun added a golden sheen to the grounds, this was always Freya’s favorite part of the day, the morning golden hour. October was one of the best months at Hogwarts, classes had begun to even out and Halloween would soon be approaching. She nodded hello and waved at many people as she made her way to the Great Hall, but as it was so early in the morning no one was much more for intense conversation.

“Good morning, Mione” Freya greeted softly as she sat next to her friend and the Gryffindor table. “Have you even been to sleep?”

“Morning, and I have” Hermione muttered, leafing through a book that was placed in front of her.

“What are you looking through so intently?” Freya said as she reached for the tea in front of her. Sipping on her drink, she watched more people begin to fill the hall before classes began.

“Harry mentioned that he wanted to put his name in for the Triwizard Tournament,” Hermione said, biting into a piece of toast from her plate. “I’ve been researching all of the past tournaments to get a gauge on what he can expect if he gets chosen.”

“You mean to tell me that Boy Wonder has decided he wants to walk into a tournament of death?” Freya muttered sarcastically, reaching for some eggs.

“He’s a moron, I know; However, he is my moron, so I do what I can to help him” Hermione offered as an explanation.

Freya is wholly unsurprised that Harry has decided to enter the tournament, this sort of intense competition is something that the boy thrives off of. When he was named the Gryffindor seeker in his first year it was a shock to the school, but Harry Potter was made to be thrown into intense situations, the bloody eejit.

Freya shook her head and began to leaf through the information that Hermione had laid around the table. They both continued to research as their friends began to make their way to their house tables for breakfast, Freya greeted Ron and Harry as they made their way to the table both were dragging their feet.

“What’s up, sleepyheads?” Freya asked after she had finished with her cup of tea.

“Bloody hell, Frey” Ron whined, reaching for the plate of bacon. “It’s too early for questions.”

“Oh, Ronald, do shut up.” Hermione snapped still doing her research on the Triwizard Tournament.

“Whatever you say, Mionie.” Ron mumbled through a mouth full of food.

Hermione huffed and promptly started to question Harry on the things that he knew about the Triwizard Tournament. While Hermione and Harry were speaking, the Owl Post made their way through the Great Hall. The Daily Prophet landed in front of Freya, and her eyes were immediately drawn to the headline: TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT THROUGH THE YEARS.

The article in the Prophet went ahead to outline the history of the tournament, and it let the readers know which schools would be participating in the event this year.

“Mione! This article says that the other two schools competing will be Durmstrang and Beauxbatons!” Freya rushed out, trying to find a gap in her friend's conversation.

“Really? Let me see!” Hermione squeaked, quickly reaching for Freya’s copy of the Prophet.

Before Freya could get heavily involved in the conversation with Hermione and Harry about the tournament, George sat down next to her. There was something about George Weasley that made Freya’s brain go dumb; He was always so charming and was never afraid of laughing at his own expense. The way that Freya tends to embarrass herself ensures that she needs to be able to laugh at herself in most situations.

“Freya! How are you this fine morning?” George said as he took the empty seat across from her at the Gryffindor table.

“Uh-” Freya began, stuttering. “I-I’m well.” Freya could feel the tomatoes practically growing from her cheeks; they felt so red. Why couldn’t she just have normal reactions to George Weasley?

“That’s good, hey, did you read about the other schools that are competing in the tournament this year?” George continued, beginning to fill up his plate with food.

As Freya and George continued to chat amicably about the upcoming tournament and their classes, the Great Hall had filled up significantly. While Freya was still trying to maintain her cool as she talked to George, her eyes were searching the Great Hall for her best friend. Ana had told her that she wouldn’t be able to have breakfast with her today, as she was going to be having breakfast with a first year student in Slytherin who had really taken a shine to her.

Freya quickly spotted Ana by the shock of blonde hair at the Slytherin table; While Ana’s hair was dark and rich, she was almost always seen with the tall blonde shadow that is Draco Malfoy. The relationship between her best friend and Malfoy was something that Freya would end up killing Ana over; Freya has told Ana time and time again that she just needs to tell Malfoy how she feels. It is bloody obvious that the boy feels the same way… the bloody eejits really aren’t subtle. Freya rolled her eyes and snorted when she made eye contact with Malfoy from across the room.

Malfoy sent Freya his signature smirk and lifted his goblet in acknowledgement towards her; Catching the movement at her side Ana looked up from hre conversation to see who Malfoy was signaling to. Once Ana saw that he was looking at Freya, she screwed her face up into a smile and sent a small wave to her friend. Freya laughed and blew her a kiss back.

As breakfast came to a close, the Great Hall emptied so that students could make their way towards their first classes of the day. Freya grabbed her bag and began to head towards her first class.

“Freya!” A voice called from behind her, “Wait up!”

Freya turned around to see George striding over to meet her at the entrance of the Great Hall.

“Oh! Did I forget something at the table?” Freya exclaimed when George met her at the door, she looked down to her bag to begin rummaging through it to make sure she had everything for the day. “I swear my remembrall wasn’t red when I got up,” Freya mumbled under her breath.

“No, you’re all good. Just figured I could walk with you to class!” George replied, a winning smile gracing his features. Freya looked at him, dumbstruck for a moment.

“You have potions in the dungeons, I’m headed outside for Care of Magical Creatures.” Freya mentioned slowly, unsure of his thought process. “You’ll be late if you go with me out to Hagrid’s.”

“It’ll be okay, Snape already doesn’t like me.” George smirked.

“If you’re sure,” Freya hesitated. She really didn’t want to make George late for his lesson, even if she did want to spend more time with him. George just sent her a grin as a reply and grabbed her bag from her shoulder so he could carry it. Before Freya could even begin to protest, he was already guiding her to the main doors of Hogwarts.

George’s hand rested on the small of her back as he began to maneuver them through the bodies that had begun to gather in the halls. Freya had to take a steadying breath as the warm, gentle touch of George’s hand caused a rush of heat to spread throughout her face.

As they made their way out of the building, Freya could hear yelling in the courtyard. As she and George made their way closer to the noise, Freya could make out the tall stature of Draco Malfoy.

“Oh bollocks.” Freya muttered to herself as she quickly made her way to the outskirts of the altercation. Without thinking of it, she reached around her body to grab the hand that George had resting on her back; grabbing hold of his hand, Freya began to drag George towards the noise. She didn’t even need to make her way to the inner circle to be able to say who Malfoy was about to duel.

“Stay away from her Potter, I bloody well mean it!” Freya could hear Malfoy yell over the eager crowd.

Once Freya made her way to the inner part of the congregated circle she saw a bright flash of light.

“Stupefy!” Malfoy yelled, thrusting his wand at Harry.

“Protego!” Harry responded, his shield narrowly allowing the jinx to miss him.

“Furnunculus!” Draco called, realizing his spell didn’t take down Harry.

“Expelliarmus!” The crowd would have expected that to come from the mouth of Harry Potter. When even Harry looked stunned that he wasn’t the one to cast the spell, everyone began to look around to find the source.

Malfoy started to grumble as he walked over to where his wand flew on the ground. As he bent down to pick it up a foot stepped down onto his wand. Freya could feel her eyes widen as she saw Professor Snape assessing the crowd, looking down his long, hooked nose.

“Malfoy... Potter.” Snape drawled, “Dueling again I see.”

Malfoy and Harry both started to speak, talking over each other hastily in an attempt to give their excuses as to why they aren’t in their classes.

“20 points from Gryffindor for dueling.” Snape snapped, an evil glint in his eye as he glared at Harry. Malfoy began to smirk, watching Harry turn an unflattering shade of red.

“10 points from Slytherin for being disarmed, Mr. Malfoy.” Snape cut his eyes over to Malfoy.

Freya could see the tips of Malfoy’s ears begin to turn red at being chastised by their Potions professor, and she loved every moment of his embarrassment.

“The rest of you better clear out before I take house points from every single person here.” Snape drawled, quickly turning on his heel to head down to the dungeons for his lesson.

“I best leave you here, Frey.” George muttered, low in her ear. Freya jumped, she had forgotten that she had been with George during the duel. She quickly released George’s hand once she realized she had been holding on to it, she could feel the flush of her skin. Looking down she gave him a small nod as she took her bag from his offered hand.

She sent George a thankful smile, as she hurried down the hill towards Hagrid’s hut. Freya was mortified, she could not believe she had just grabbed George Weasley’s hand, and he let her. Freya knew that objectively she was a very pretty girl, her dark hair and almond shaped eyes had garnered some looks from guys. There was something that always held the guys back from approaching her, and she had a feeling that it had to do with her figure.

Freya would never be a pretty thin waif, like her friend Ana. Being friends with girls such as Hermione and Ana allowed for appreciate looks, but Freya always felt as though she was overlooked by the other guys that she went to school with. She didn’t have an issue with her body, but she could also understand that she was not going to be everyone’s type. She never thought that she would be George Weasley’s type, he’s always surrounded by fit girls on the Gryffindor Quidditch team like Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson. Shaking her head, she pressured herself to stop worrying about boys and to start thinking more about the Thestrals she would be helping Hagrid show to the class, as she was the only one in the class who could see them.

The rest of her lessons that day were filled with talks of the Triwizard Tournament, or the duel between Malfoy and Harry that morning. Freya couldn’t help but worry about Ana; Ana hated when Malfoy and Harry fought. While she didn’t quite love Malfoy, Freya knew that he was a good friend to Freya. Before Ana and Harry became friends, the fights between Malfoy and Harry were much worse; Malfoy tended to hold his tongue nowadays out of respect for Ana.

Freya took her classes for the day in stride, although she did find herself spacing out in Potions like she normally does. By the time her classes were done, Freya was so tired of hearing about the duel between Malfoy and Potter. The minds of teenagers seemed to always revolve around the same things, no matter if they came from the muggle world or that magical world.

As Freya left the Hufflepuff common room with her friend Natalie, she noticed a noted posted to the bulletin board outside of the Great Hall:

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT  
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o’clock on Friday the 30th of October.  
Lessons will end half an hour early — Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front  
of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

  
The crowd of people that had been gathered around the announcement started to chatter excitedly about the upcoming visits from the foreign schools. Hermione had already briefed Freya on everything she knew about both of the magical schools during their shared free period after lunch. Hermione did not like to go without information, and Freya was the one who was always willing to listen to the information Hermione was willing to share.  
Freya made her way to the Hufflepuff table with Natalie, as they chatted about the tournament and what kinds of students each school would bring with them for their stay at Hogwarts this year. Once Freya had settled down at her house table she began to search the Great Hall for Ana, hoping to offer her some reassurance after the duel between their two friends.  
Freya could see that her friend was not seated next to Malfoy as she normally was… she had chosen a seat for dinner next to Theo. Freya could notice the tightness around her best friends eyes and mouth as she reached for her goblet of water. Freya could see Theo lean down to speak to his sister, a small smile began to grace the delicate features of Ana’s face. The softness did not last long, as a truly evil smirk started to take over face as her brother continued to speak to her.  
Freya could tell that there would be at least one more fight this week, she smirked to herself, and she felt like Malfoy was going to lose twice.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Another update this week! I hope you enjoy the slight change of pace this one brings!

Ana stood in the common room stone-faced as Slytherin’s started to file in after dinner. She watched as the older students rushed past her, knowing that they wanted to be nowhere near the common room when Draco arrived (most of them have been witness to the legendary Nott and Malfoy disputes). Those who had been witness to the fights between Ana and Draco quickly rushed to usher those who had not seen the fights out of the room as quickly as possible. She watched as Theo and Blaise walked in, Theo gave her a thumbs up and Blaise smirked.

“I’ve got 5 galleons on you, Ana. Don’t let me down.” Blaise snickered as he made his way to the boys dormitory. 

Before he could get out of eyesight, Ana shot a wandless stinging hex at his back. She could hear a muffled scream come from Blaise, smirking to herself, she turned around to face the common room doors. The last couple of Slytherins trickled in, the only Slytherin’s who should be walking in the door were Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. 

Ana stayed in the common room for another 10 minutes before Draco and Pansy walked in the doors. She fixed a cold stare onto the doors, knowing that the first one in would be Pansy.

“Parkinson, if I could please have a moment alone with Draco here.” Ana deadpanned, her eyes locking in on Draco’s. She could feel his resentment rolling off his body in waves. 

“Oh, be my guest.” Pansy simpered, throwing a longing look at Draco. “You know where to find me, when _she’s_ done with you.” Tossing her hair, Pansy strode out of the common room and made her way to her dormitory. 

“Draco.” Ana warned in a deadly voice.

“Oh, well let me sit down, oh mighty one.” Draco muttered, stalking over to one of the couches in front of the fire. 

“You are a blithering _idiot,_ Draco Lucius Malfoy!” Ana screamed at him, storming over to stand in front of him. “Why do you _insist_ on goading Harry? We are _not_ dating! Even if we were, there is no need for you to comment on my relationships!” 

“You could do much better than Potter. That git would never be able to understand you, or the way our families do things.” Draco snarled at her from where he was sitting. She could see his sharp features define more as his anger began to grow palpable. 

“That doesn’t matter, because: We. Are. Not. Dating. I refuse to believe that you are as stupid as you are acting right now. I tell you time and time again, unless you want to make it your business on who I am seeing, it is _not_ your business.” Ana huffed, she could feel her temper begin to fall as she just became frustrated with Draco’s insolence. 

She could feel all of the blood leave her face as she realized what her last statement meant, Ana had basically just told Draco that she would want him to have an opinion on who he was dating. She prayed to Circe that he wouldn’t pick up on that meaning, but Ana knew that he was a quick thinker and would latch onto that last comment. 

“Yeah, Annie? Do _you_ want it to be my business who you’re dating?” Draco murmured in a predatory voice. He slowly stood, Ana didn’t realize how close she had been standing to him until he stood up. He appeared to be much farther away when he was still sitting down; Standing to his full height, Draco had to look down at her to be able to see her face. Draco took a small step closer to her, until their chests were touching. Draco lifted one of his hands to pull on the ends of her hair, he leaned impossibly closer to her as she could feel the power rolling off of him in waves. 

“Oh, Annie, all you have to do is ask.” Draco whispered against her ear, she could feel his warm breath on the shell of her ear. “The moment you ask though, you need to be prepared for all of me. Once I have you, I’m never going to let you go.” 

Ana could hear the warning in his tone, she knew about the Malfoy men. Once they found their soulmates, that was it for them. Ana knew that if she ever decided to become truly involved with Draco that it would be the last relationship she ever had. Draco Malfoy would ruin her for all men. Ana knew that he was goading her, especially with that display that Pansy had thrown out at her before. 

Draco’s mouth left her ear and she could feel it ghost across her temple and down her cheek. His nose began ghosting along the perimeter of her face, Ana could feel her heart begin to race and she knew that she had to get out of here. Draco had won this battle tonight, and he knew that she felt something for him.

“If all I need to do is ask, why is Pansy on standby like a common whore?” Ana muttered, trying to clear the fog from her mind.

“Pansy wants me to be involved in the people that she’s seeing, and as there have been no better offers...” Draco shrugged, pulling away from her slightly. She just realized that his arms had come to rest along her waist, and hers had been laying on his chest throughout the confrontation. 

Ana took a step back from him, severing all contact that they had. Ana could not deny that she was hurt by the acknowledgement of her feelings for him, that he had thrown back in her face as if they truly meant nothing to him. 

“Well I don’t see any _better offers_ coming tonight, so you better call your whore.” Ana declared, clearing her throat and tossing her hair over her shoulder. 

Ana could see the flash of anger cross Draco’s eyes, but they soon turned back to his stone cold grey that she was used to seeing.

“Don’t make me wait too long, Annie. I just might be gone by the time you’re ready for me.” Draco shrugged, stepping closer to her once more. He invaded her personal space, and she could feel his nose ghosting along her own. Just when she could feel the faintest hints of his breath on hers, he pulled back slightly and planted a kiss on her temple. Draco turned around and strode out of the room without casting a look back at her.

Once Ana was sure that Draco was out of ear shot, she felt herself crumple to the floor and she let out a sob. Ana could not believe that Draco had used her own emotions against him; she knew that it was unlikely that he was completely unaware of his affections, but to throw them in her face was cruel. 

Ana leaned her head against the couch cushions that Draco had been sitting on, she could still smell the mint that lingered on his skin. She could feel tears beginning to seep out of her eyes, she sat alone in the common room for maybe ten minutes, before she could hear someone enter the room. 

The footsteps slowly grew louder as they made their way over to her, she could feel someone sit down on the couch next to her head. Fingers started to run through her hair, and she turned her head to rest her face against the leg of her brother. 

“ _Coeur,”_ Theo softly murmured as his hand continued to run through her hair. “As soon as I saw that pointy faced git walk into Blasie’s room I knew he fucked up.” 

Ana lifted her head and lifted herself on to the couch so that she could curl up next to her brother. Theo wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on top of hers. 

“He threw the fact that I liked him in my face, Theo” Ana whispered. More tears streamed out of her eyes as she thought of the callous way Draco treated her emotions. She could hear Theo swear under his breath at her admission. She felt him kiss the crown of her head as he sighed, carefully thinking of his response.

“I know you never believe me when I tell you,” Theo began. “But Draco really has been waiting on you for as long as you have been waiting on him.” 

Before Ana could protest at her brother’s words, he shushed her and she signaled for him to continue speaking. 

“You are his best friend’s sister, and someone that he holds very highly in his life. If he were to fuck it up with you, he would have so many people to answer to. He’ll never enter into a situation headfirst if there is even a remote possibility that he could get hurt, we leave that to our Gryffindor friends.” Theo explained to his sister, she could feel his smile on the top of her head. 

“Pansy is someone that he feels okay fucking around with, that’s not to say it’s okay of him to do so... but, he doesn’t care about her. He has no want to be with her long-term, he knew that he would never be able to do that with you. He would have to be all in, and that’s scary for him.” Theo attempted to make his sister see reason. Draco fucked up, but he didn’t mean to hurt her in the way that he did. The self-preservation that Draco held for himself was immeasurable; there would never be a time where he would put himself in a position to be hurt.

“I get it, I suppose” Ana murmured. “I’m still hurt by what he did, if he’s _serious_ about me, he shouldn’t try to hurt me.” 

“You’re 100% right _coeur_ ,” Theo declared, she could hear the smirk in his voice. Ana lifted her head off of her brother’s shoulder to look him in the eye. “And he’ll pay for it, no one makes my sister cry.” 

Ana giggled, and launched herself at her brother; Theo was never one for hugs, but he always let her be emotional with him even if he didn’t like it. She gave him a tight squeeze and told him that he was going to bed. He kissed the top of her head and made his way to his side of the dorm. 

Ana changed and laid in her bed, she needed to think about if she was ready to throw herself into the ringer for Draco. There were so many opportunities for him to hurt her, but she felt, deep in her heart, that he would be the greatest love story of her life if she could borrow some of her friends’ Gryffindor courage. 

Ana was seated at the Hufflepuff table with Freya the next morning, explaining everything that happened with Draco last night when she heard the whispers make their way through the Great Hall. Ana looked around and quickly pinpointed the source of all of the whispers, Draco walked into the Great Hall sporting a black eye and a cut on his lip. Theo and Blaise walked in behind him, Ana immediately knew who caused the black eye. Theo caught her eye and sent her a thumbs up as he made his way towards the Gryffindor table to sit with Hermione. Draco sat down at the end of the table and avoided making eye contact with anyone. 

Pansy made her way to Draco’s side of the table and attempted to talk to him, she could see her visibly flinch at something he said as she hurried away from him to sit next to the Greengrass sisters. Just as she was about to look away from her house table, Draco locked eyes with her from across the room.

 _“Your move.”_ Draco mouthed at her before she could look away. She sucked in a breath and quickly averted her eyes. 

“Well, now _that_ is interesting. Isn’t it, Ana?” Freya mentioned, her voice smug as she reached for the orange juice. 

“Oh, shut it you tosser.” Ana grumbled, smacking her friend on the side of the head. 

“Feck, Ana! There’s no need to resort to bloody violence!” Freya grumbled, attempting to dodge from another one of Ana’s jabs. 

Freya continued to mutter under her breath about Ana’s unfair treatment of her; Ana chose to ignore her grumblings as she normally did. Ana couldn’t help but wonder what she had gotten into with Draco this time. Draco has always been known to provoke her, but last night was unlike anything that had happened between them before. 

The playfulness that Draco and Ana held for one another was something that was widely known between their friends… they often talked about when Ana and Draco would come to their senses and get together. While this has always been something that Ana has wanted, she didn’t know if she was ready to fully commit herself to a relationship that she knew would destroy her if she lost. Losing Draco meant losing a part of herself that Ana was unwilling to give up; She could hear Freya in the recesses of her mind telling her _“where risks were taken, rewards could be found.”_

Ana continued to avoid any conversation that would lead to the topic of Draco over the course of the next couple of weeks. Once Freya had heard everything that had happened that night with Draco she refused to let Ana get out of speaking about her… _feelings._ If there was one thing that Ana hated more than a bad mark in Potions, it was speaking about her feelings; Ana refused to allow herself to become an overtly emotional teenage girl. Ana had taken to quite literally running away from Freya when she heard the somber tone in her best friend's voice; Ana had taken to hiding out with Theo when she could. Ana knew that Freya was just trying to help her, but Freya was also aware that Ana needed time to process by herself even if it not what Freya would want her to do. 

While Ana continued to avoid her issues as per usual, the school had become alight with chatter and excitement as the 30th of October drew nearer. The other two schools that would be participating in the Triwizard Tournament were set to arrive tomorrow night, and all three schools would get to assess the others. Ana had always had an adventurous spirit, and she briefly considered entering her own name into the tournament, but she drew the line at getting herself killed; Theo would be none too pleased if he had to deal with their father alone. 

The afternoon of Durmstrang and Beauxbaton’s arrivals found Ana sitting in the Potions classroom with Professor Snape. Ana had taken a keen interest in Potions her first year at Hogwarts and her interest in the subject had appealed to Professor Snape. That is not to say that Snape was overtly kind to her; Ana felt like there wasn’t a single person on the planet that Snape truly liked. Ana had approached Snape her second year of school about additional Potions work as it was something that she wanted to pursue, he had told her that he would allow her to come work with him for two hours a week. As Ana progressed in school, Potions was something that she had come to feel very strongly about; Ana had even considered obtaining a Potions Mastery after she finished her schooling at Hogwarts. 

Ana continued to thinly slice the flobberworms that Snape had tasked her with for the night. 

_“You will never succeed in Potions unless you are precise with your measurements, Miss Nott. Try not to be as insolent as your peers.”_ Snape had sneered to her one of her first times coming to her extra credit hours. He held no room for error when it came to her, Snape would never admit it to anyone, but he had very high expectations for her. 

As Ana was focused on her slicing, she failed to hear another person enter the room until she heard Snape’s voice respond to the third person in their midst. 

“-Yes, Potter.” Snape snapped as he stalked out of the room. Calling behind him Snape ordered Ana to clean up her mess before she left his classroom. 

Looking over at where Harry stood, Ana could see the excitement in his eyes as he made his way over to help her clean up her mess. 

“Blimey, Ana! Didn’t you realize what time it was?” Harry exclaimed as he helped her start to put the sliced flobberworms into vials. “The other schools will be here in a half an hour!” 

“Oh,” Ana started. “No, I hadn’t realized the time at all. Since Lupin cancelled Defense today I came down here to get some extra work in!” 

Harry just shook his head fondly at her, as they began to take the vials over to the Potions cupboard so they could head up to the courtyard to greet their guests. 

“So, have you officially decided to enter into the tournament?” Ana asked as she and Harry started to retreat from the dungeons.

“Yeah, I was talking to Gin and she said that it’s right up my alley.” Harry responded, leading her up the stairs to enter into the main hall.

“Gin is it?” Ana looked to Harry with a sly look in her eyes.

“Yes, Gin it is.” Harry declared with a proud look to his eyes.

“You finally did it then?” Ana squealed, stopping on the stairs to grip Harry’s arm. “You actually made a move?” 

“I did.” Harry seemed sheepish in his reply, he started to rub the back of his neck as he tried to detach her hands from his arm.

“Oh Harry, I’m so happy for you!” Ana smiled, she knew how long Harry had been pining for Ginny Weasley (even if he refused to call it pining). 

Harry and Ana walked up the last few stairs and made their way into the throngs of students making their way out to the courtyard. As they made their way outside, Ana noted that it was a beautiful night for their guests to arrive. The sky was just beginning to turn a purplish hue, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Ana looked around and tried to find her friends, she and Draco weren’t the Prefects leading the first years down to the lake, but she couldn’t help but point a little Hufflepuff first year in the correct direction of where he was supposed to be. 

Freya caught her attention from across the courtyard, she waved them over to come join their friends. Seamus and Dean were very obviously flirting with one another, they were probably the only two in their group of friends who had the common sense to just be honest with each other about their feelings. Even though Freya and Seamus were related, Seamus tended to spend most of his time with Dean and didn't hang around the common rooms when they studied. Ana felt like it had something to do with the fact that he didn’t like when Hermione told him that he needed to study harder, another part of her brain just said that he liked to shag Dean in peace while they all hung out. 

Harry hurried over to stand with Ginny, and before Ana could reach Freya and George she felt a hand grab her wrist. Ana felt her back hit the chest of a man, and before she could spin around and hex them to oblivion she was able to tell who had grabbed her. The faint smell of peppermint allowed her to identify that Draco had grabbed her, as her spine began to stiffen Draco pulled her more firmly into him. He ducked down to rest his chin against her shoulder, his arms had wrapped around her sternum and had locked around themselves. 

“ _You_ have been avoiding me, Annie.” Draco murmured close to her ear, she could feel the warmth of his breath on her ear. 

“I haven’t been _avoiding_ you” Ana protested. “I just haven’t had anything to say.” 

Ana tried to resist sinking back into his embrace, but her willpower was weak and the wind had begun to pick up outside. She leaned back into Draco allowing herself to forget about their… altercation the other night, she has never been able to stay mad at Draco for long. If she were being honest with herself, she was more upset with herself than she was with him. 

“I suppose it was a bit… unfair of me to unload all of that on you.” Draco continued to murmur in her ear. “If you aren’t ready for me, that _is_ fine Annie. I hold too much value in you to allow this to break us. However, I am aware of what I want, I made that implicitly clear to you.” 

“I know what I want too, Draco.” Ana replied after a minute of quiet deliberation. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for you. It is one thing for me to think of you and want you, it is another thing to be offered you. I know that sounds bonkers, believe me, I just think I need more time.” 

Draco didn’t reply for a long moment, she heard him take a deep breath. He leaned his face into the back of her hair and rested his head against hers for a moment. Before he got the chance to reply someone in the courtyard shouted that they could see something headed towards the school. 

Ana turned her head to the sky to observe the black object in the sky. Before her eyes met the skyline, she noticed Freya looking over at her with a smug look on her face. Freya nodded to where Draco was wrapped around her and smirked. Not to be bested, she nodded to the arm that was currently wrapped around the shoulders of her best friend. The arm happened to be attached to one George Weasley, there was no way that Freya was going to goad Ana without a turnabout. 

_“I was cold!”_ Ana could see Freya mouthed to her. Ana sent her a smirk and turned her eyes back to the sky. 

As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder- blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant. The Hogwarts students waited with bated breath as the carriage landed, each person wondering which of the schools had arrived first. 

A startlingly large woman stepped out of the carriage, and as students began to file out behind her Professor Dumbledore approached the woman to address her. Dumblebore and the woman made polite conversation as Professor McGonagall began to lead the visiting students into the Great Hall. 

“That has to be Beauxbatons” Ana could hear Hermione say from a few people over. “ The French accents gave it away when Dumbledore addressed their headmistress.” 

Once the excitement of the first school arriving began to face a long black pole began to rise out of the water in front of them. Slowly… magnificently, a ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank. 

Ana surmised that this must be Durmstrang, as the students began to file off of the ship Ana took note of one of the girls who stepped off of the ship. There was something strikingly familiar about her, but Ana was unable to place where she could have seen this girl before. Once Dumbledore had finished ushering the Beauxbatons headmistress, who she overheard was named Madame Maxine, into the school he made his over to the headmaster of Durmstrang to greet him. 

Professor McGonagall began to direct the Durmstrang students as well as the Hogwarts students into the Great Hall for the welcome feast. Ana tried to step away from Draco to make her way into the castle, but his arms only tightened around her. She could feel Draco lean his mouth down near her ear once again, she could feel his breath. 

“Anastasia Nott,” Draco once he got the chance to reply after the excitement. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to court the _fuck_ out of you.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Friday update for you! I promised the inspiration behind Freya that I would add this too the author's note: #livelovegeorge
> 
> Let me know what you think! Have a nice weekend!

Freya Finnegan was a good friend, but she could see that if she didn’t stop pushing her best friend that she would be on the receiving end of a nasty hex soon. Ana was a fiercely independent person, and Freya was aware that talking about emotions was one of the few things that Ana shut down over. However, Freya knew that if she allowed her friend to wallow internally she would combust. In actuality, Freya recognized why she was so focused on her friend's issues: it made her mind unable to hyperfocus on the relationship that was beginning to form with George. 

As Freya wandered down to Greenhouse Six to meet Neville for their shared Herbology project, she walked through the grounds she took in the beauty that was the Hogwarts ground. If there was one thing that Freya could unequivocally admire it was the way that Hogwarts changed with the seasons. Freya loved to watch the leaves change color and the landscape adapt to the wintry weather that would soon be on the horizon; Winter was Freya’s favorite time of the year, it coincided with the Yule season (though if you asked her she would say that muggle Christmastime is far superior to stuffy Yule). There was something about winter that always drew Freya in, from the way that the trees looked covered in snow to the playful banter that came with the first snow of the season. It was the end of one year that would bring the beginning of another, which was something that Freya could always appreciate. 

Ending her musing, Freya approached Greenhouse Six to hear the gentle words coming from Neville. Freya smiled to herself as she approached the door, she loved that Neville took their work with the plants so seriously. Neville believed that allowing the plants to grow in a pure nurturing environment would allow for them to truly flourish, so they spoke to their plants in tones that made them feel as if they were speaking to dear friends. Whether or not it worked was questionable, but it made the both of them feel as if they were making a real difference in the way the plants grew.

“Hi, Neville!” Freya smiled warmly at her friend, “Sorry if I’m late, I got lost in my head walking down here.” 

“No problem, I was in another greenhouse already before I made my way to ours.” Neville mentioned as he stepped away from the Aconite that was in its own environmental bubble for the temperamental nature of the plant. The Aconite was a compelling plant that only few in the school were allowed to handle, Professor Sprout had started growing it during their third year and has been very protective of it ever since. Freya and Neville were allowed to observe the plant, but have never been allowed to be around to harvest it when the flowers had reached maturity.

Freya nudged Neville away from the Aconite so they could turn to their Alihotsy plant on the other side of the greenhouse. Freya had approached Professor Sprout about growing Alihotsy last year as an independent project, but due to the unforeseen nature of the plants leaves Professor Sprout would only allow Freya to work with them if she had a partner. Freya knew that Neville would be ecstatic to work with a new plant, no matter her motives for wanting to grow it. 

George had approached Freya last year about working on a new laughing taffy that would require Alihotsy. George knew that if there was anyone who would know about obscure plants it would be Freya; they had both come to the conclusion that once they all left Hogwarts, Freya would be the supplier for all of the herbological ingredients that the twins would need for their products. Having someone as knowledgeable as Freya working with them would benefit the quality of their products, for now Freya was assisting them from the Hogwarts greenhouses. Freya had always had a fond passion for Herbology, so allowing her hobby to grow into something of a profession is a dream come true for Freya. 

“This batch of Alihotsy looks about ready to be harvested, Frey.” Neville commented as he took notes on the plant's physical properties to check for inconsistencies with the last batch they had grown. 

Freya moved towards the equipment shed in the corner of the greenhouse to retrieve a pair of gloves, they were mandatory for harvesting Alihotsy due to the nature of their leaves. She grabbed a pair for herself and for Neville so they could begin to shear the plants so the process of regrowing could begin. Freya knew that the harvestation of these plants was time sensitive, so she made sure to come down to the greenhouses at a regular interval to make sure that they wouldn't be left to wilt and die. 

Freya and Neville began to harvest the plants, carefully placing them in vials that Freya would be able to take to George later on before dinner. Tonight’s feast would be one for the ages, as the Goblet of Fire would choose the three schools champions for the Triwizard Tournament. It was easy to get caught up in the day-to-day antics of being a student, so for Freya it was like the tournament had fallen on the backburner and had been forgotten about. After Harry decided to enter his name her friends had stopped talking about it in hopes that it would help Harry’s nervousness about being chosen. 

Freya and Neville began to clean up their supplies so they could head back to the castle, classes had ended early today to give the students time to relax before the feast. The school’s professors must have known that the students would be too distracted to get much work done. That being said, it hadn’t stopped some professors from being their usual surly selves, such as Snape. Once Freya and Neville had finished their cleaning they said goodbye to one another as Freya started to head up to the castle, and Neville placed his earmuffs on tightly as he went to check on some mandrakes in another greenhouse. He couldn’t stand to have a repeat incident of second year. 

Freya made her way up the castle with the vials of Alihotsy in her hands as she hummed to herself. While she was in her own world, she failed to notice the dark eyes that watched her from the edgeline of the trees as she made her way back towards the courtyard. The eyes tracked her movements all the way into the castle, and they didn’t relent until she had made her way into the castle and was long out of sight. 

Freya had made her way up to the Gryffindor common room after being out in the greenhouses to meet with George and Fred about the fresh batch of Alihotsy that she harvested. She chose to hang out up in the towers for the reminder of the afternoon up in the tower with her friends. She lounged by the fireplaces as her friends played games of Gobstones and Exploding Snape. She and George had been in an intense discussion on the merits of using Leaping Toadstools in candy for students.

“I’m sick of school, let’s talk about something more serious.” George complained about 40 minutes before they needed to head down to the Great Hall. 

“Well what do you propose?” Freya looked at George with a reluctant look in her eye, George had a devious streak that she had fallen victim to in the past. 

“I would like to make a little…wager.” George declared, looking Freya directly in the eyes. She knew she was in trouble with the way he was smirking.

“Bloody Hell, what do you want to wager on?” Freya asked with trepidation coloring her voice. Their conversation had garnered the attention of some of the other people in the common room. The chatter had died down as they tuned into the conversation. 

“I want your knowledge before I make a true wager, Frey.” George smirked as he leaned closer to her from the couch across from her. As soon as he said that he wanted her knowledge, she knew the topic would revolve around the feelings her best friend had for Malfoy.

“I won’t give you knowledge that isn’t mine to share… but I  _ will _ give you my own input.” Freya replied carefully, assessing exactly what she could say to assuage his curiosity. 

“Alright then, based on your own observations…would you say that Draco and Ana are jumping into a new relationship soon? Or would you say that it’s still pretty long off?” George carefully eyed Freya’s reaction to take in the way she reacted to his question. Freya shook her head in disbelief at the redhead in front of her.

“You already made a wager, Weasley. You just want to know if your guess was right.” Freya said with a triumphant gleam in her eyes. Bets were commonplace when you hung out with Gryffindors, Freya mostly enjoyed watching them pester one another more than anything. 

“Don’t get smart with me, Frey.” George needled her, leaning closer to her. The look in his eyes was playful yet intense as he stared at her. 

“Alright, alright…” Freya giggled, she leaned further back into her chair. She tilted her head as she thought of how much information she was willing to divest. 

“I would say, based on my own observation, if Malfoy has his way… There will be a ring on her finger by the end of the school year.” Freya declared loud enough for the rest of the room to hear. She wanted to be sure that her true information would only be heard by those she wanted to know; The amount of eyes that immediately became disinterested in their conversation told her all that she needed to know about why everyone was listening to them.. 

“Yes, yes. The Malfoy wedding will be the social event of the next year. I want short-term Frey.” George hurried, his eyes darting around the room assessing everyone who had stopped listening to them speak. 

“I give it till the first trial, George. They’ll be so disgustingly in love that I’ll want to pitch myself off of the astronomy tower.” Freya whispered as she affectionately thought of her best friend's happiness. 

“Brilliant.” George gave her a wicked smile as he got up to leave the common room. “Well come along little badger, time to go see which children are being sacrificed for entertainment.” 

George held his hand out to Freya with a ridiculous smile on his face. Freya burst out into laughter as she gathered her things to follow her friends down to the Great Hall for the choosing of the champions. Freya allowed George to pull her up off of the chair and lead her to the portrait hole.

The Great Hall was bustling with activity as Freya entered through the main doors. George had already found Fred and they were sitting with some of the other seventh year Gryffindors. George had his head bent low as he was speaking to his twin, no doubt speaking about the information she had given him in the common room. 

Freya searched the Great Hall for some friends to sit with, she quickly found Ana sitting on a bench beside Harry and Hermione. Ana and Hermione were deep in conversation, no doubt about some obscure potion that they learned about in their advanced Potions class. Freya would rather spend an evening with the Whomping Willow than be subjected to Snape being unnecessarily rude for hours on end. Freya weaved through the throngs of students to make her way over to her friends. She took the empty seat next to Ana and began to look around as Hermione and Ana finished their conversation; Malfoy and Theo were sitting behind them engaged in what appeared to be a very tense conversation. Freya stored that information away for later to speak to Ana about. 

“Frey!” Ana snapped her fingers in Freya’s face in order to gain her attention. Freya must have been off in her own world for longer than she originally thought. 

“Ana, how has your day been?” Freya said as she looked at her friend. Ana and Freya spoke about their days and decided that Ana would come to the Hufflepuff dorms after the meeting to have some long overdue girl time. 

In the middle of their conversation, a sudden hush fell over the crowd as Professor Dumbledore made his way to the center of the Great Hall. He stood next to the Goblet of Fire and cleared his throat to address the hall. 

“Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision,” said Dumbledore. “I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions’ names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber” — he indicated the door behind the staff table — “where they will be receiving their first instructions.” 

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluey-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting. . . .

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm’s length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

“The champion for Durmstrang,” he read, in a strong, clear voice, “will be Sarin Ivanova.” 

A striking dark-haired witch stood from her seat from across the room to make her way to the room indicated for the champions. The girl walked with an air of confidence that Freya only wished she could emulate; The longer Freya looked at the girl, the more she felt as though she had seen her somewhere. There was something oddly familiar about the defiant look in her eyes. 

The quiet chatter that had begun once Sarin stood up, was quickly silenced by the flames of the Goblet turning a brilliant red once more. The whole hall waited with bated breath as they watched for the next name to come out of the Goblet. 

“The Champion for Beauxbatons” Dumbledore said after another piece of paper shot out of the Goblet, “is Genevieve Laurent.” 

A tall and willowy blonde stood up from her perch on a bench two over from where Freya and Ana were sitting. The girl walked with grace that Freya had never seen before, this girl had a different kind confidence that Sarin emulated. This confidence was more internal, opposed to the external confidence that Sarin had given off.

The flames of the Goblet turned red once more, this would be the crowning of the Hogwarts champion. Freya reached over to grab Ana’s hand, she gripped it tightly as she thought of all of her friends who had entered their names. The bench that she was sitting on began to shake as Harry’s knee began to bounce on the other side of Hermione. Freya shot him a small smile and a thumbs up as the next piece of paper shot out of the Goblet and into Dumbledore’s awaiting palm. 

“The champion for Hogwarts” Dumbledore began, “is Harry Potter.” 

The roar of cheers that broke out from around the hall was deafening, Harry smiled broadly as he stood to make his way to the room indicated for the Champions. As Dumbledore began to give his final statements and dismiss everyone from the Great Hall the joy that Freya had felt when Harry’s name was called seeped out of her. Instead of the happiness for her friend that she should be feeling, Freya felt a cold sting of dread as she thought that her sixth year was going to be filled with more terror than happiness. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry it's a bit late, I don't plan to have an update on Christmas. I'll try for one early next week though!!

“You know,” Freya began, reaching over to grab a sugar quill from the table in front of them. “I’m pretty sure that Draco telling you, and I quote, that he wants to court the fuck out of you would seem like a good thing.” 

Ana huffed as she sent a scathing look at her best friend, they had had this conversation just about everyday since Draco had made his intentions to her known. They seemed to just be talking in circles. 

“You have been talking about that pointy faced brat since the moment I met you, Anastasia Nott. This is quite literally your dream come true, what is the  _ issue _ here?” Freya questioned as she looked over to her friend. 

Ana took a moment to burrow into the couch in the Hufflepuff common room as she thought out her answer. It was hard to explain the machinations of her mind to someone else because Freya is correct. Draco sodding Malfoy has been her dream for over a decade, and to be  _ handed  _ him is a bit daunting; Ana has worked for everything in her life, and Draco offering himself up to her on a silver platter seems too good to be true. Theo is the effortless sibling when it comes to the Nott twins, Ana has always had to work just a bit harder than her brother to be able to be on the same level.

“I’m in love with Draco, and I have been for so long. I just don’t want to open myself up to being hurt by him.” Ana tried to explain to her friend. “I know the things I love about him, and I know things that most people will kill to know about Draco. I don’t want to open myself up to being hurt by someone I know is it for me.” 

“Ana” Freya looked at her with a somber expression. “Opening yourself up to being hurt makes love and life that much more exciting. It’s scary, but if we live our lives with fear then life will be mundane and boring.” 

“You give the best advice” Ana whined, covering her face with her hands. “Too bad you refuse to take it yourself.” 

“Nope, this conversation is about you, not me my good friend.” Freya laughed and reached to give her best friend a hug. 

Ana was actively avoiding her brother, which was something that did  _ not _ happen often. The Nott twins were as thick as thieves, but when it came to Ana and relationships, Theo was unbearable. Theo was currently talking his way through the halls of the castle in an attempt to find his sister, but Ana had started to recruit the help of those around her to ensure that he could stay far away from her brother at all costs. So far, Ana had been pretty successful at dodging him, but all luck must come to an end.

“Anastasia.” Ana could hear her brother drawl from behind her in the library. Ana had taken to hiding in the Ancient Runes section of the library as it was the one subject that Theo couldn’t stand. There was a secluded set of chairs at the back of the section that was mostly hidden from view of the main library. 

“Theodore.” Ana steeled herself as she turned to look at her brother in the eye. His forehead was creased in frustration and she could see the tautness at the corner of his eyes that ensured that she was in for a scolding. 

“Can you try to explain to me, what in the  _ fuck _ you’re doing with Draco?” Theo snapped as he crossed his arms, walking over to the other chair to stand in front of it. 

“ _ I _ am doing nothing with Draco,” she looked at her brother cautiously. “Draco has decided that he wants to formally court me.”

Instead of dignifying Ana with a response, he just arched a brow at her and continued to look imperiously at her. Ana sighed and sagged into the chair that she was sitting in, she knew that she would have to offer her brother full honesty on this matter. A formal courting between his sister and his best friend was something that Theo deserved to know about from her and not from mumblings from throughout the castle. 

“You know how I feel about Draco, Theo. You have to have known that he felt this way about me long before I did, so I’m not sure what your deal is.” Ana grumbled, pulling at a loose thread on the sleeves of her robes. 

“I don’t care about the way you two feel about one another, no matter how disgusting I think it is.” Ana smiled at the grimace that graced her brother's face. “I care that neither one of you thought to inform me! I am the most important person in your boring life, Anastasia!” The indignant look in Theo’s eyes made Ana want to burst out into laughter.

“Let me get this straight, Theodore.” The nasty look that Theo shot her was worth the use of his first name. “You’re upset that I didn’t give you  _ gossip _ on my life? Not that I want to eventually marry your best friend?” 

“ _ Yes! _ I hate being out of the loop and you sodding know it you bint!” Theo huffed as he threw a wandless stinging hex her way.

“Sweet Circe, Theo!” Ana rubbed at the sore spot the stinging hex left. “I’m sorry, okay, I just didn’t know how you would react.”

“Ana, I love you. I’m even  _ happy  _ for you. I’m just sore you never told me that he wanted to court you is all.” Theo said, getting up from his chair to walk over and sit on the arm of hers. 

Theo reached an arm around her shoulder to encase her in one of his hugs, Ana leaned heavily into his side. She hated not speaking to her brother, even if it was of her own volition. There was no one on this planet that knew Ana the way that Theo did. 

“So, do you want my help in courting the infamous Slytherin Prince?” Theo smirked once their moment had ended. She rolled her eyes at the snark of her brother, he was unable to be serious for more than ten minutes at a time. 

“As a matter of fact I do,” Ana began, she sent her brother a smile as she launched into the differences between the courting rituals in the Nott and Malfoy families. She wanted to get her brother’s opinions on which of the families traditions she should take from when it came to their formal courting.

Walking into her advanced Potions class on friday, Ana noticed that there was something distinctively different about the set up of the room. Ana spent many hours in here, and to see three bubbling cauldrons filled with complete potions was something that didn’t happen often. Ana looked around the room at her classmates as they too took in the sight of the unusual set up, there were very few sixth years in this advanced class. Professor Snape took great care of those he allowed to take an eighth year level of Potions as seventh years. Theo, Draco, Ana, and Hermione were the only sixth years who were permitted to take the NEWT level seventh year potions class. 

Ana gave her goodbyes to Theo and Draco as she made her way to her lab table with Hermione. Professor Snape had paired the sixth years off with one another for class, as they were outnumbered by the size of the class. As the rest of the seventh year Slytherin’s and Gryffindor’s made their way into the potions lab, Fred and George made their way over to Ana and Hermione’s table to chat before their lesson started. 

In the middle of their conversation, Professor Snape strutted into the classroom, robes billowing behind him. 

“Silence!” Snape called as he made his way to the front of the Potions. “I am here to prepare you for your NEWT exams, not listen to your insolent chatter.”

“Now then,” said Snape, reaching the front of the class scowling at all of the students, “I’ve prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kinds of things you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of ’em, even if you haven’t made ’em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?”

He indicated the cauldron nearest the Draco and Theo’s table. Ana raised herself slightly in her seat and saw what looked like plain water boiling away inside it, but Ana knew better from Professor Snape.

Hermione’s well-practiced hand hit the air before anybody else’s; Snape scowled as she was the only one to raise her hand, he gestured to Hermione to answer.

“It’s Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth,” said Hermione.

“Correct.” said Snape snappily. “Now,” he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest Fred and George’s table, “this one here is pretty well known. . . . Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too . . . Who can — ?”

Hermione’s hand was fastest once more.

“It’s Polyjuice Potion, sir,” she said.

Ana had recognized the slow-bubbling, mudlike substance in the second cauldron, but Hermione was always quicker to raise her hand.

“Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here . . . yes, Granger?” drawled Snape, looking infinitely annoyed, as Hermione’s hand punched the air again.

“It’s Amortentia!”

“It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask,” remarked Snape, who was looking mightily bored, “but I assume you know what it does?”

“It’s the most powerful love potion in the world!” said Hermione.

“Correct, you recognized it, I suppose, by being unable to keep your nose from the inside of a book?”

“And the steam rising in characteristic spirals,” replied Hermione enthusiastically, ignoring the disdain that colored Professor Snape’s voice, “and it’s supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell cloves and old parchment and —”

But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence. Ana looked at Hermione in shock as she herself recognized those scents to be the ones associated with her brother. Ana cut her eyes over to Draco and Theo’s table to see if her daft brother had been able to make the connection between Hermione’s amortentia and himself. Her brother seemed unaware of where the scents had come from, but Draco looked at her with a knowing gleam in his eyes as he had recognized what Hermione’s scents indicated. 

Snape called for each of the tables to come up so they could observe the three potions and take a whiff of the Amortentia. Ana looked over to Hermione as the first group was called up to the front of the room. 

“You know, it’s okay that you fancy my brother Mione.” Ana gave her friend a small smile. 

“Oh god, you knew.” Hermione groaned as she lowered her head to their table. “Do you think he caught on?” 

Ana snorted at the thought, “Theo may be insanely intelligent, but he is as daft as they come.” 

Ana looked up from her table as she heard Slughorn call Fred and George up to the front of the room, Ana was interested in what George’s Amortentia would smell like. 

“Weasley. Come up to the cauldron quickly, there are other students who need to come up.” Snape snapped as George began to dawdle behind his brother. George made his way up to the cauldron and took a generous sniff.

“Well, Weasley.” Snapped Snape, “What is it that you smell?”

“I smell,” George hesitated. “Fresh ocean breezes, freesia, and honey.” By the look on George’s face, Ana could tell that he was confused at what he smelled. Ana smirked to herself as she was able to place the three scents with minimal effort. George Weasley just smelled Freya Finnegan in his Amortentia, and Freya was going to lose her shit. 

“Nott, Granger.” Snape snipped as his patience thinned with the students in the room. Hermione and Ana rose from their table to make their way up to the front of the room, Ana could tell that Hermione was anxious about going near the Amortentia again, so Ana elected to make her way through the potions first. 

Ana took her time observing the Veritaserum and the Polyjuice potion, she had read about them both in books, but she had never gotten the chance to see them in person as they were very complex potions to master. When Ana found herself standing in front of the last potion on the table, she looked up at Professor Snape. He gave her a single nod, she leaned over the potion to smell what was inside. 

“I smell… leather, old parchment from the restricted section, and apple in my Amortentia, Professor.” Ana offered up to Professor Snape without a prompt, Ana had an idea of what she would smell when it came to what she was most attracted to. 

Ana could feel Draco’s eyes on her back as she moved away from the table to allow Hermione to speak to Professor Snape. Ana looked over to him to see his reaction to what her Amortentia smells like, Draco sent her a smirk letting her know that he was fully aware of whom her Amortentia was meant to smell like. Ana could feel a blush rise to her face, she would never get used to the way that Draco looked at her. Hermione hurried over to Ana’s side as Professor Snape dismissed her from the front of the room. The girls made their way back to their table to begin looking over their Potion’s books for the recipe of Draught of the Living Death. 

Professor Snape called up Draco and Theo to the table so that he could assess their analysis of the potions at the front of the room. While pretending to analyze her Potions book, Ana listened in to Draco’s analysis of the Amortentia. 

“I smell… fig, lavender blossoms, and sandalwood.” Draco said, taking a step back to remove himself from in front of the potion. He stood off to the side as he allowed Theo to assess the potion. 

Ana lost all sense of what she was supposed to be doing, Draco had just described the perfume that she had been wearing since they were kids. Her mother had sent for a french perfume maker to make a signature scent for both Theo and Ana before they came to Hogwarts. Ana looked down to her Potions textbook to start memorizing the ingredients for the Draught of the Living Death, it was how Hermione and Ana ensured that they wouldn’t forget anything since Professor Snape didn’t allow for books to be used once it was time to brew. Ana always memorized the ingredients, while Hermione memorized the steps of the potion. 

Once everyone in the class had made their way up to Professor Snape for his assessment, he told them to put their things away so that they could brew Draught of the Living Death; this would be the most complex thing that class had brewed thus far. Hermione and Ana quickly began the preparation for the potion, and started to begin their brew. 

By the end of the class, Ana was exhausted. She had never had to do such a labor intensive potion at her time at Hogwarts. She walked out of the Potions lab, saying a quick farewell to Hermione as she made her way to the Slytherin dormitory down the hall. She could hear a single set of footsteps behind her as she made her way closer to the dorms. As she approached the portrait hole she said the password and made her way inside. Before she could reach the stairs that led to her room she felt long fingers drip her wrist and halt her movements. 

She turned to look at a pair of piercing grey eyes. Draco’s eyes searched his face as he brought his free hand up to her cheek. His fingers were light as he traced along her cheekbone.

“I was unsurprised to smell you, Ana; However, I was even more delighted to find out that you smelled me in your Amortentia as well.” Draco spoke softly, not wanting to disrupt the charged atmosphere that had started to simmer between them. 

“There was never a doubt in my mind whom my Amortentia would smell like, Draco.” Ana replied, reaching up a hand to wrap around the wrist that was currently held to her face. 

Ana took a sharp inhale of breath as Draco’s face moved infinitesimally closer to hers. As he looked at her to gauge the reactions that were flitting over her face he began to move closer. Draco released her wrist and brought the hand that was holding her around her back to pull her up against his body. He brought his head closer to her, until she could feel his soft breaths against her lips. 

Ana took the initiative and connected their lips together for the first time. His lips were plush and soft as they moved against her own. There was no urgency between the kiss, it was soft and sweet; Something that she had wished for from all of her first kisses in past relationships. Ana doesn’t know how long they stood there in the little bubble that they had created. Draco began to pull away from the kiss, he took the hand that was holding on to her face to slide it around to her hair. He pulled her body closer to his as he embraced her in an intimate hug, hand on the back of her head holding her to his chest. Ana wrapped her arms snugly around his middle as she embraced him with as much affection as she could muster.

“I have something for you, Annie.” Draco murmured after a long moment.

He pulled away from her body to reach into his robes, he grabbed a long thin box from the pockets and presented her with it. She took hold of the box, looking up at him. He nodded at her to open the box, when she did she was presented with a stunning thin silver chain with a brilliant emerald embedded into the center. She recognized the intent behind the gift, an heirloom piece of jewelry was the first gift in the process of formal courting. She could feel the sting in her eyes as she looked at the necklace before her. 

“Would you put it on me?” Ana asked softly, after removing the necklace from the box. He gave her a brilliant smile as he recognized her acceptance of an official courtship. He reached for the necklace, and she turned around to allow him access to the back of her neck. After clasping the necklace, she turned around to look at him. 

“Thank you, Draco.” Ana said rising on her toes to give him a sweet kiss. 

“Anything for you, Annie.” Draco said, wrapping his long arms around her and encasing her in an embrace. 


End file.
